Politics

by Aristotle Narrated by Andrew Cullum

Overview

The title Politics literally means `the things concerning the city'. Here, Aristotle considers the important role that politics plays in the life of the community and its contribution to harmonious and virtuous existence.

It is divided into eight books and was a cornerstone in political philosophy for centuries despite certain features - including attitudes towards slaves and women - clearly placing its conclusions and advice within the confines of Athenian society of the fourth century BCE. Aristotle's fundamental view is that the individual needs the city more than the city needs the individual, not least because a well-ordered city-state offers obvious benefits beyond simply self-protection and commerce. It makes possible a broader life, allowing in addition education and leisure, leading its citizens towards a life of virtue.

In book two, Aristotle considers the best regime for the city, looking at the three main forms of his time - democracy, oligarchy/aristocracy and monarchy. He considers the qualification to be a citizen and participate in the political process - offering a wider view than Plato, for example.

Revolution, change, constitutional developments, insurrections - these issues of instability are discussed with references to specific examples. And in later books he proposes the conditions for the best state, the ideal state, `for a state is not a community of living beings only, but a community of equals, aiming at the best life possible'.

Aristotle's Politics is a seminal text and is read here by Andrew Cullum with clarity and purpose. Translation: Benjamin Jowett.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"This excellent addition to the Clarendon Aristotle Series will be indispensable not only to specialists in ancient philosophy and political theory but also to the many classicists now writing on the politics of Greek culture and society....With Kraut's reliable translation and his commentary illuminating the larger issues raised, Politics 7-8 could now be an eminently suitable introduction to Aristotle's thought for the classroom."—Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Product Details

BN ID:	2940159184429
Publisher:	W. F. Howes Ltd
Publication date:	03/21/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Book I

Chapter 1. Since we see that every city is some kind of association, and every association is organized for the sake of some good (since everything everyone does is for the sake of something seeming to be good), it is clear that all associations aim at something good, and that the one that is most sovereign and encompasses all the others aims at the most sovereign of all goods. And this is the one called the city, the political association.

Now those who assume that the same person is skilled at political rule as at kingship, household management, and mastery of slaves do not speak beautifully. (For they regard each of these as differentiated with respect to manyness or fewness but not in form—a master being over few, a household manager over more, and a political ruler or a king over still more, as if a large household were no different from a small city; as for the political ruler and the king, when one has control himself, they regard him as a king, but as a political ruler when he rules and is ruled by turns in accordance with the propositions of this sort of knowledge. These things, though, are not true.) What is being said will be clear to those who investigate it along the usual path, for just as it is necessary in other cases to divide a compound thing up into uncompounded ones (since these are the smallest parts of the whole), so too with a city, it is by examining what it is composed of that we shall also see more about these rulers, both in what respect they differ from one another and whether it is possible to get hold of anything involving art applicable to each of the things mentioned.

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